Driving along the busy A11 into Norwich from Thetford the motorist may notice signs to Hethersett. This road bypasses the village and only the square tower of the medieval church with its tiny steeple is visible across the fields. The settlement was mentioned in the Domesday Book as having one mill, two churches, as well as meadows and woodland. Records of even earlier times are kept at the Norfolk Rural Life Museum at Gressenhall.

In the late-eighteenth century, Norwich merchants built their substantial country seats here, with the turnpike giving easy access to the city just six miles away.